Monday, November 22, 2010

734 pages, this was. And truth be told, many of them got a little bit winded, but the action in the book's last four chapters makes the entire, if longish, experience worthwhile. A good editor maybe would have axed everything the screenwriter eventually did (house elves, Crouch family back story, Voldemort's rambling explanation to the Death-Eaters, Rita Skeeter as a (beetle) animagus, etc.) but if you love the series, you can probably handle all the extra business in this book, I did.

1. Pleasing British vernacular? "LOT." I love this and it just keeps popping up, for instance:

Arthur Weasley: "You lot---get into the woods and stick together!" and "I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections."

Mad Eye Moody: "Look at that, you lot . . . Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it!"
(I also dig Moody's little paranoid actions throughout and the CONSTANT VIGILANCE! he's always harping at the students.)

2. Last rant I had a little go at everything always happening to Potter, and it comes up. . .

"'Look,' said Hermione patiently, 'it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault,' she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. 'I know you don't ask for it . . . but---well---you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous---he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many. . . .'"

3. Other completely random things that I dug were referring to Nagini (giant snake) as "some horrible travesty of a pet dog" as it curled up on the rotting hearth rug, and Dumbledore responding, "Quite Understandable. Continue." when Harry states that he had fallen asleep in Divination.

Fun book. Lotta ins, lotta outs. And someone somewhere would do good to write some sort of (scum) manifesto about explaining and defining the magical terms. As in, the differences between hexes, curses, and jinxes, as they seem interchangeable. And what differentiates a charm from an enchantment? Or a spell? A chart comparing Muggle remedies with Magical Potions. Firm perimeters of what can or cannot be summoned, reproduced, repaired, or transfigured. An entire outline devoted to means of travel, fireplace networks, apperating/disapperating, etc.

Yeah?

The Film:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, directed by Mike Newell, 2005.

157 minutes. I don't really have much on this. It's my second-least favorite film, I think it's everyone's hair. Moody's scenes are the best, notably the turning of Malfoy into the ferret, telling McGonagal he was "teaching." This film suffers horribly from too-little Snape.